With the diffusion of digital cameras in recent years, there have been developed printers capable of printing images according to the data directly transmitted from digital cameras through cables or by reading the data recorded on recording media. Such a printer is capable of printing the images photographed by digital cameras like the photographs developed from a sensitized film.
Moreover, because the images photographed by the digital camera are recorded as electronic data, it is possible to produce New Year's cards or calendars with illustrations of images and letters laid out therein, photographic seals set in frames or the like by processing the images using an image processing application on a personal computer (hereinafter called the PC) and printing the images thus processed.
However, there exists a problem arising from the fact that digital camera users who do not have a PC or are inexperienced in handling a PC are unable to produce printed matter wherein the image photographed together with any other image or letter is laid out through the simple operation of the single prior art printer.
Another problem is that it is still troublesome and takes considerable time to produce printed matter wherein the image photographed together with any other image or letter is laid out because the image thus photographed is processed by using the image processing application on the PC.
An object of the present invention made to solve the foregoing problems is to provide a single printer and a printing method for producing printed matter wherein the image recorded together with any other image or letter by an image recording apparatus such as a digital camera is laid out.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a printer and a printing method for easily producing printed matter wherein the image recorded together with any other image or letter by an image recording apparatus such as a digital camera is laid out.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a printer and a printing method for producing printed matter in a short time wherein the image recorded together with any other image or letter by an image recording apparatus such as a digital camera is laid out.